Ikea Desk DIY

June 15, 2015

About a month ago, I bought an Ikea Desk from my friend who was moving back to France. It was a classic Ikea desk, and it was okay. However, for the past few months I had been envisioning my office space at home and that desk was not exactly what I had in mind. Therefore I decided to paint it to fit my vision. It was a longer process than I had expected and I learned quite a bit from my mistakes. I though I’d share it with you.

First, here are the materials that I used. Everything was purchased at the Home Depot.

Spray Paint in White and Rose Gold

Primer (not in picture)

Painter’s tape

Plastic tarp

Mask

Gloves

1/ Preparation

Set the tarp in a well ventilated area. Ideally, you want to set it up outside. However, the wind can drag dust, leaves and other things on the paint that is still drying. In my case I set it up inside in front of the patio door with all windows and doors opened.

You also want to make sure that you wear a mask and gloves. You don’t want to be breathing the paint as you spray it, and if you get it on your hands you will have to scrub your skin very hard or use nail polish remover (trust me, I have tried).

2/ The Board of the Desk

Once you have prepared everything, put the board on the plastic tarp. I would recommend sanding it lightly (in particular if the board has a glossy finish). It will allow the paint to adhere better to the surface. In my case I did three layers waiting a couple of hours in between each.

Once the surface of the board was dry, I proceeded to cover it with plastic and affix it with painter’s tape (as you can see in the picture below).

I has also sanded the sides of the board before painting them. I propped the board on a couple of cardboard boxes. The reason for this is because if I left the board on the floor, the paint would drip and gather at the bottom (another mistake I made). Once the board is propped and stable, I did two layers of rose gold paint.

3/ The Legs

Once the board was completely dry (I waited 24h to make sure), I flipped it over and put the legs on. Then, I added newspapers and painter’s tape everywhere I didn’t want paint on. As you can see, I decided to go for a very simple design with one stripe.

I sanded everywhere there would be paint on, until it felt slightly rough to the touch. Here is where I wasted the most time. I decided to not use primer; the legs being metallic and not flat (unlike the board) the paint would drip and create ugly streaks. Eventually I had to sand everything off and get some primer.

After adding two layers of primer, I found that patience was my best friend. The trick was to do very thin layers. In total, I did four layers for the legs.

And voilà the result!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY! Have you ever done a DIY project? What did you learn from your mistakes?